Most Emailed Articles

Here
you can see the results of my experimentation with the Eliminate
White, Eliminate Black, and Whitewash filters. If you reached
this page from a search, you can go
back to page one for a summary of the filters and links
to download them.

As I mentioned on page one, these filters are particularly useful
on black and white line art. Since the filters only work on
RGB images, you must first convert bitmap or grayscale art to
RGB mode.
Here's the results of the Eliminate White filter on the image
above. The layer was then placed above another layer filled
with a radial spectrum gradient.

Here's
the same image after applying the Eliminate Black filter and
placing it above another layer filled with a radial spectrum
gradient.

In
the next two examples I've used Photoshop's layer effects to
add depth and dimension to the same simple line art image.

In this image I used the color layer effect to convert
the black areas to red. The layer below was filled with a solid
dark blue, then the pillow emboss layer effect was applied
to the top layer.
In this image the layer below was filled with blue and the top
layer had the emboss layer effect applied.

I
used the Eliminate Black filter for the image below, then placed
the layer onto a textured background. It couldn't get any easier
than that!

After using these filters, you can almost always improve the
results by using the matting commands in your software.
After using Eliminate Black, choose Matting > Remove Black
Matte; and after using Eliminate White or Whitewash, choose
Matting > Remove White Matte. Notice the difference before
and after using the Remove Matte command in the example below.

Original
Image

Eliminate
Black

Remove
Black Matte

The
next image demonstrates the Whitewash filter. Notice how how
the light areas become increasingly transparent each time the
filter is applied.

In
the following example, the Whitewash filter was used. The partially
transparent layer was placed above a water texture, and the
pillow emboss layer effect was applied to create an easy stained
glass effect in minutes.

The
last example demonstrates how these filters can be used in conjunction
with other tools and features of your software to create wonderful
effects.

Here's the steps that were taken to produce the second flower
image:

First,
the background was promoted to a layer and then duplicated.

On
the top layer, the Eliminate Black filter was applied and
the blend mode was changed to Hard Light.

On the bottom layer, the colors were inverted (In Photoshop:
Image > Adjust > Invert) and the opacity was lowered
to 80%.

To
produce the foggy edges another layer was inserted between
the two. A feathered border selection was made and filled
with white.

To
give the image a slightly embossed look, the top layer was
nudged one pixel up and one pixel to the left.

The
resulting image is much softer and better suited for a greeting
card or wedding invitation than the original, dark image would
have been.

I
hope these examples gave you some new ideas for some cheap and
easy effects and shortcuts. You certainly can't go wrong adding
these freebies to your filter collection. Have fun with your
own experimenting, and feel free to post your results in the
Show
and Tell folder of the forum.